Runners challenge No. 7 Train

Brian Callender and more than two dozen other runners will challenge the No. 7 Baldwin steam engine to a foot race this Saturday, Aug. 17.

This will not be Callender’s first race against a train: when he was studying for his physiotherapy degree in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, he participated in the Puffing Billy challenge, on the Puffing Billy Railway.

“They have a steam train run called the Puffing Billy that runs every year,” Callender explained. “I’ve run it and I loved it.”

When he returned to Port Alberni he began looking into how he could run a similar race on the Alberni Pacific Railway.

The No. 7 Challenge will take runners 10 kilometres over roadways associated with the train, but not on the tracks themselves. “We do cross the tracks twice,” Callender said.